It wouldn’t be hard to feel sorry for Lynne Stewart, the New York attorney who was convicted of providing material support to terrorists. At age 67, and suffering from breast cancer, she now faces 28 months in a federal penitentiary. After three decades of providing dedicated-and sometimes brilliant-representation to the poor and despised, her career is ruined and (as she once put it) she has no pension plan. Yes, her crimes were dreadful, but she wasn’t the first guileless soul to be led astray by romantic notions of somebody else’s revolution. Judging from the outpouring of support she has received from former clients, colleagues, and even adversaries, she has obviously done much good in her life.
Given all that, I’d like to be able to write a finely balanced account of the Lynne Stewart case, weighing both the good and bad, and perhaps ultimately applauding Judge John Koeltl’s decision to give her a far lighter sentence than the prosecution requested.
